Fantastic Manipulations Performed Before The Golden Age Of Photoshop
(23 photo)

You’ll rarely see a photo today that hasn’t been manipulated, generously enhanced or overlayed with dozens of filters, but in truth this has been happening since the dawn of photography itself – its just that the process of manipulation has evolved.
In the early 1800s and even through to the 1900s, if you wanted to alter your photo to create an illusion it was an incredibly labor intensive process. There was combination printing, photomontages and even overpainting – all took time and all had significant drawbacks.
Which makes the following collection of fun and somewhat illusory photographs all the more impressive.
They were created during an era where you genuinely had to be measured and considered in how you were adapting the film negative itself. There was no magical ‘undo’ button, just lots of trial and error and trying to adapt the technology as best you could. But its safe to say, thanks to the creativity of those involved, all of these images bear little resemblance to their original photographs – it’s amazing what a little magic can do isn’t it?